Website Design

Say Goodbye to Popups on Mobile

Recently, Google announced some important changes to mobile search, specifically targeting popups and their mobile-friendly label. The reason behind their upcoming change is to enhance the mobile experience for users.

The first of the two changes is their removal of the mobile-friendly label. Two years ago, Google set out on a mission to make mobile search faster, relevant, and easy to navigate. This meant providing mobile friendly guidelines that made content more visible and links accessible to the mobile user. According to Google’s announcement, 85% of search results on mobile now meet their guidelines and as a result they have made the choice to remove the mobile-friendly label from websites.

The second change is one of our favorites – say goodbye to popups on mobile. Starting January 2017, Google will begin penalizing popups on mobile that are intrusive to users. With the mobile-friendly guidelines provided by Google, so many websites have made improvements so users don’t have to zoom in to read content. However, much of that hard work is often missed because of the distractions like popups.

Image Credit: Google

Here are some examples of popups that will be penalized:

– Websites using popups that cover up the pages content completely after clicking on the page from the search results.

– Interstitial ads that cover entire pages and have to be exited before being allowed to view content. Interstitial ads are full screen ads that usually pop up between levels in a game or when switching from one page to another.

Although disruptive popups will affect website rankings there are ways to create user-friendy popups. Here are a few examples of how to use popups on mobile responsibly.

*This update to Google’s mobile guidelines will not affect popups that are for login or legal purposes.

As much as we dislike popups or ads, sometimes they’re necessary. We strongly recommend working with an experienced developer to create ads or popups that meet Google’s latest guidelines. Although popups can seem like a small part of your website, it can take a few weeks to iron out the changes with your agency of choice. It’s extremely important to get started soon (before January) to avoid any negative repercussions.